Tales of the Sanguine Empire
by HistoryGirl19
Summary: Story written by myself and FUBARShan. It follows the alternate universe creation of the Sanguine Empire out of the fire and blood of the Sith Empire and the Republic. Enjoy! This is a labor of love and time, be warned, mostly original characters, lots of violence, some gore, swearing and drama.
1. Chapter 1

Intro.

A bright sun shone down on the planet of Eshan's eastern hemisphere, outside of the major cities, the light trickled into the windows of a family's home. Nothing unusual, really, as it seemed another typical day, at least for this particular family. Nothing could be further from the truth as it would turn out. A young girl sat playing happily in the front yard of the impressive looking house while an older woman, her mother, watched front the window inside. Unfortunately, the happy day was interrupted by a large, imposing shadow looming over the city.  
A Sith warship, a large dreadnought, orbited high overhead, but this was not the cause of the shadows. Several large landing craft slowly glided over the city, one of which began to descend just mere kilometers from the girl's house. Her mother urged her inside at which she reluctantly went. As soon as she was inside, she looked through the window only to see several large Imperial troopers in full battle armor matching towards her mother who had a vibroblade drawn and had already taken a subtle defensive stance in front of the squad. The squad troops separated and revealed a cloaked figure in black. The figure had a terrifying face mask and a weapon the young girl had identified early on as a lightsaber hanging from its belt. The figure spoke as it approached the girl's mother, "I have sensed great Force affinity here. You will tell me the origin of this power. Now." "It is me." The woman stated bravely. "You're lying. There is no power in you. The only thing I sense in you is... Fear." The figure raised its right hand, picked the woman of the ground by the throat, and threw her several meters away, tossing her like a rag doll. He called out, "come out child. I won't hurt you." The young girl appeared, walking through the doorway and watching the figure, "What is your name?"  
The figure asked softly, "Ava'kra." The girl answered unwaveringly, somehow determined to show no fear. "I am Darth Decimus. And you are now a Sith." She was six years old. "First, we have unfinished business." Decimus looked towards Ava's mother, "use your fear, Ava. Strike out. Kill her and your future is yours." Ava was incredibly confused and looked towards her mother who was staggering to her feet, vibroblade in hand. Ava thought back to the cruel moments her mother had visited on her, and somehow the Sith's words just seemed right. Without focusing, without intending, Ava lashed out and crushed her mother's bones without so much as a second thought.  
Decimus seemed to beam behind his mask, "Excellent! I was right about you. I knew once we landed. I could sense your power. Raw and unrefined. You will go to Korriban, and learn to become powerful beyond measure." Ava was led to the landing craft, leaving her life, her home, her world, and her family, behind or dead.


	2. Chapter 2

Tales of the Sanguine Empire Part II -  
Ava rose from the cramped bunk space, slipping on her Academy uniform. The garb, if it could really be called a uniform, consisted of a basic black cloak, with matching pants and a tunic. On the back on the cloak with the Imperial seal. Acolytes were allowed to customize their attire within reasonable acceptable parameters. Ava could never figure out what caveat meant so she left the outfit alone. Eight years she had been on this desolate planet called Korriban.  
She had just turned fourteen, and her life, up to this point, had consisted of culling hatred, anger, and pain from within her. And when none existed, create new pain to draw upon. She looked at her reflection in the small mirror that she and three other Acolytes were forced to share. Her body was already adorned with fresh bruises and scars. She pulled the wrapped black tunic tight across her lean frame. Gone was the innocent smile of her pleasant youth. She could not recall the last time she had genuinely smiled in happiness.  
Every time she came close to happiness in this Academy, something happened to rip it away. She ran a coarse brush through her short white hair, letting it fall about just shy of her shoulders, thinking back to just a few months ago, the latest incident as it were, when her best and only real friend, Rika, an Acolyte from Onderon, also captured as a young girl, was killed in front of her. The killing was done by Master Kajar, one of the teachers, as a punitive exercise against Ava and Rika both.  
What was perhaps worse, Ava had been ordered to do the killing. The offense seemed rather trivial; whispering to each other during a lecture on Sith magic. But apparently Master Kajar had been planning this for some time. He stopped the lecture, had the rest if the students form a circle, drew a vibroblade from a nearby shelf, and tossed in between the two young women. "You will fight until one is dead." Kajar knew full and well that Ava would win, easily. She was already being trained as an assassin. She had a passion for the lethal arts.  
Rika, on the other hand, showed immense potential for a number of paths to pursue. But, at the moment, she excelled at none of them. Ava was resistant to move, and at a nod from Kajar's head, one of the Academy guards plunged a shock baton into Ava's spine. She screamed in pain and fell to her knees. Rika ran forward, lunging for the vibroblade, but Ava, now in a spur of anger, pulled the blade to her hand with a weak Force pull, and immediately slashed horizontally intending to bisect Rika.  
The crowd of students cheered but it was unclear if they supported Ava or Rika. Chants rose up, "KILL, KILL, KILL!" Led by Master Kajar. Rika deftly dodged the repeated swings of the blade, only making Ava more and more angry. Finally, Rika managed a strong right cross and left jab that sent Ava staggering. Instead of knocking her to the ground however, the attack sent Ava into a rage. Purple lightning flew from her fingers and her left-hand kept Rika planted. "Good, kill her." Master Kajar whispered in Ava's brain. She was already using powers she did not consciously know she had in her possession.  
With Rika lying on the floor, begging for her life, clarity came to Ava as she walked forward, gripping the vibroblade and ready to strike. "Yes, she must die so I can grow." Such is the Dark Side. With a sneer of hatred, she swung down and beheaded her best friend of five years. Ava snapped out of her reverie. Pulling her hood overhead, she walked out of her room, out the door, down the hall, and into the harsh Korriban sun into the Valley of Dark Lords. Master Kajar had yet another test.


	3. Chapter 3

Ava rose from the cold ferrocrete floor, shaking her head for a moment to regain her focus. The hit from the Wroshyr wood staff was harder than she thought. Master Kajar had led the students deep into one of the Tombs in the Valley of Dark Lords and paired each Acolyte up, given them heavy staves made of Wroshyr wood, one of the hardest woods in the known galaxy. They were ordered to fight until one was unable to fight. No usage of the force was allowed. This particular tomb dulled force sensitivity.

Ava's opponent, a tall, slender boy named Kris, was not particularly skilled, but he was strong. And Ava was not paying attention. Kris had a tendency of, quite literally, bludgeoning his way through his academy training. What he could not master in art, he did so through brute force. At a certain age, normally a younger age, Acolytes are selected to train into a certain specialty. In Ava's case, she was learning to become an assassin. Kris, however, fit none of the accepted paths. So, the headmasters of the Academy had put Kris on to the Juggernaut path where he seemed to be flourishing reasonably well. However, Ava was very good at what she did.

Flipping over Kris as the boy executed a sweep with the staff, and executing a series of swift strikes with own staff to the backs of his thighs and calves. She repeated this process every time he turned around, causing Kris to swing wildly and become tired and frustrated. Without using any Force energy, Ava simply had to rely on her own endurance, hammering Kris's legs one final time, falling back into an Echani defensive form, she landed a heavy blow against the boy's head, knocking him unconscious. They would have a rematch later in Ava's bunk. Kris would arguably win that particular match. Though Ava would argue otherwise.

Short chapter I know, work in progress. More to come!


	4. Chapter 4

Ava walked away from the training room, down the long hallway, into the winding stairwell that led to the Acolyte dormitories. 'I need a shower' She thought wistfully to herself, practically daydreaming of the entire five allotted minutes of steaming hot water pouring down her aching muscles. It was one of very few times that the fifteen-year-old girl could actually be alone with her thoughts and dare to relax for at least once during the day; Acolytes were encouraged to take out their fellow students in daring and cunning ways, thus each student was constantly looking over his or her shoulder all day, every day.  
But though the showers were not off-limits per se, as organic beings, all the Acolytes grew tired occasionally, and Ava's class, all one hundred and fifteen of them, had agreed on a secret pact: No murders or trickery in the showers. After nearly ten years at the Sith Academy on Korriban, Ava counted on that pact in order to allow herself to relax and mentally regroup for the next day. While there were no days off, occasionally, the Headmasters would be merciful and allow the Acolytes an effective "half-day" or similar method of reward. However, the students lagging behind did not receive this gift.

These students were given until their comrades returned the following day to show their instructors why they deserved to live, much less stay and possibly thrive. The little six-year-old girl just nodded, not understanding anything but eager for a new adventure after sleeping most of the way from Eshan to Korriban. "Darth, sir?" The little girl asked meekly, looking at the tall figure in dark robes, "Yes, what is it?" He murmured, eager to get back to his ship. "I'm hungry..." Decimus quipped, "They will feed you in the Academy." Ava groaned, snapping herself back to reality, feeling the hot sweat cascading down her pale body. Echani did not tan, unlike other species, but Korriban's sun was unusually oppressive in its heat. Thinking back, Ava realized the Academy did not in fact feed her when she arrived. It was a test, the first of many; a test of endurance and will.

She was tested, repeatedly, and did not eat until three days had passed. She was so weak, but she now realized that starvation in itself was a test. A test of endurance and stamina, and will power. She savored the hot water until the alarm buzzed, signaling her time was up and a jolt of electricity would be sent into the flooring of the shower if she did not vacate. She begrudgingly did so, wrapping a towel around her body and laying on the stone benches between the shower-room's lockers. She closed her eyes and reflected back, recalling that her time her had been anything but pleasant, however she had excelled.  
Ava was, according to her instructors, one of the finest assassin trainees they had ever witnessed. At any point she had fell behind other students, she would either ensure their failure, or engineer their death herself. Her instructors and close classmates knew it was her behind the killings, but they would never mention it. Lest they become her next target. Most of the Academy's student and instructor population knew Ava was mentally unstable and they knew the cause.

At Ava's 13th birthday, she was invited down to the lower levels of the Academy. Levels usually reserved for members of the Dark Council. Ava had heard stories but had never met one of the leaders of the Empire. She was told, by two instructors, today was her special day. She did not ask questions; she had learned the penalty of asking questions at the Academy was extremely severe. She was led into a dark chamber, then sealed inside, alone. She started to become frightened but remembered some of the training instilled in her thus far. She heard chains rustling at the far side, followed by soft whimpering. Calmly, she lit electricity along her fingers and used this to illuminate the room. In the corner, hanging in a cage, minus an arm and a leg which had been reduced to bloody stumps, sat her friend, Idriza.

Idriza cried when she realized it was Ava. "Oh Ava! It's you! Get me out of here, quick, before it comes back!" The girl cried and begged. Ava, having learned not to defy her superiors at the Academy, tried to make sense of this. "Why did they put you in here, Idri?" The girl stared at Ava in disbelief for a moment before answering. "They...they locked me in here on my birthday, last week, for refusing to kill that Kath Hound we found in the Valley." Idri always did have a soft spot for animals. Now she was locked up here like one. "The...the Darths come in and lure a Terentatek out and it feeds on me..." She gestured to her lost limbs. "Please Ava, you've got to get me out, I know you can!" Ava reluctantly agreed. At that moment, the far door opened. A large Sith Lord walked in, though he more waddled than walked. "what is going on here?!" He bellowed.

Ava whirled around, facing him, "My-my Lord, I was just-" "Just showing mercy on a prisoner I see." The large Sith judged, cutting her off. He outstretched his right hand and Ava was suddenly pinned against the wall, chains descending and wrapping around her hands and feet. "Very well, child, it seems you need a lesson in obedience as well. Not to worry, yours will not be permanent." The large Sith chuckled and threw a switch, summoning a tremendous, foul-smelling creature with jagged fangs, crawling out of the darkened cave entrance at the back of the room. "Oh, he's not going to eat YOU my dear. He's here for your friend." The Sith laughed in sick glee as Idri screamed and begged for mercy. The Terentatek ripped the girl out of the cage, sucking and stripping the meat from her last remaining leg, followed by her body.

"Oh, he's hungry today." The Sith, later identified as Darth Baras, exclaimed in satisfaction. The dark side creature munched and gnawed on Idriza's body until not even her screams remained though it left her head while it retreated back into its cave. Ava was nearly catatonic. Baras put Idri's head on a spike and mounted it in front of Ava's face where she would be forced to stare at the head for hours before being released. When she finally was let down from her chains and told to go back to her bunk, Baras looked her over and nodded, "Good, there's a great deal of anger in you now." But Ava could feel nothing. Nothing at all. Back to her fifteen-year-old self, she sat up in the shower room, pulled a fresh Academy jumpsuit on, slipped her robes over her shoulders, pulled her hood up and headed outside. She needed some fresh air, no matter how many rules it violated.


	5. Chapter 5

p style="margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"br /br /p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Tales of the Sanguine Empire- Part V ~ /span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Ava'kra knelt before Master Orvus, a larger who was supposedly famed for his wisdom, and in this case, lightsaber construction, though Ava did not yet know that was what she was visiting him for. "Acolyte Ava'kra." Orvus intoned solemnly, "Yes Master, what are my orders?" Ava replied coldly, though no one ever had a doubt of where Ava's loyalties lie regardless of how her voice sounded. Only the most devout students of the assassin schools of the Academy were inducted into the Order of the Shadow Blade. On this, Ava's 17th birthday, the Empire and the Academy in particular was to reward her for her loyalty, skill, and burgeoning power./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Orvus began to speak and chant rhythmically as was his way, "Ava'kra, on this day, you will be inducted into one of the most hallowed Orders of the Sith Empire. One of the first students of the Sith Academy to ever be so honored. Today, young Acolyte, in honor of your loyalty, your commitment to the Dark path, your skill and your power, being far above your peers, you will be inducted into the sacred Order of the Shadow Blade. Do you accept?" The question was a formality, and any rejection would be met with swift retribution. "I do, my Master. I am grateful for this honor." Ava replied softly, raising her head to look into the eyes of Master Orvus./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Orvus nodded once and two heavily armored yet ceremonially dressed Imperial Guards came forward and held Ava down to the ground with her arms outstretched. "Do not resist. The Guards are here to keep you steady while you are given the Sacred Mark." Ava did her best to hold still, her heart racing and breath quickening, as a third guard advanced with a white-hot branding iron. Orvus himself walked round the cluster of gathered persons, which included Ava and the three guards. He reached down, pulling the top of Ava's robe up, igniting his own lightsaber and slicing Ava's tunic open from the back down. "Here, and here." Orvus pointed to two spots, one on her shoulder, one on her lower back over her kidney./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"The Guard nodded, extending the iron and pressing firmly, slowly, against Ava's soft pale flesh. "You may scream, young one." Orvus intoned. Ava only growled, "No Master. I will endure." She could swear she heard the large man chuckling before he mused, "As you desire, Acolyte." The iron pulled away leaving a small darkened mark in the shape of a snarling wolf's head. Later in life, Ava would model her Sanguine Empire's emblem off this design, with her own attributes added for effect. The iron pressed down again, this time in the spot Orvus indicated over her kidney. The image was of a rising falcon gripping a blade in its talons./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"To her credit, Ava never cried out. She never whimpered. She never showed any legitimate sign of physical weakness. Orvus smiled wickedly, "Rise child. You knelt as a mere Acolyte. Now rise as an ordained member of the Shadow Blades." She tentatively rose to her feet, her eyes glistening like cold steel, "I am greatly honored, Master." Orvus nodded, smiling in glee, "As you should child. Next year, you will graduate from the Academy, and leave this place. Many of the more successful Sith Lords and Ladies return here from time to time to seek wisdom from the Dark Council in the lower chambers, or consult the library for knowledge. Abandon this place at your peril, do you understand Acolyte?" She had channeled the pain of her branding into rage and was now becoming bored with Master Orvus' speeches. "Yes Master."/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;""To that end, young one, your final task as part of your induction and your training in the Academy, you are to create your weapon. You have one week to assemble the materials and show me that you have done so. After that, you have one week more to create the crystal. I know for a fact you have been entering the library without permission for several years now. I know you know the steps to creating your crystal. No, I am going to punish you...Yet. So long as you follow your instructions. Do you understand?" Orvus smiled through bloody teeth as he asked Ava the question. "Yes Master." She answered robotically, though inside she was thrilled. It was not that Orvus could not sense her excitement, but rather he did not care and was incredibly self-absorbed./span/span/span/p 


	6. Chapter 6

p style="margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"br /br /p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;"Tales of the Sanguine Empire- Part VI ~ /span/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;"Cloaked in shadows, touched by flame, her sight obstructed yet far-seeing through the Force. Ava sat in the improvised meditation chamber she had constructed weeks ago. The furnace in front of her blazed with unnatural power, gained through the darkness with which Ava had fueled the fires of her forge. At the heart of the furnace lay the crystalline lattice that was forming her lightsaber crystal. She sat naked, save for a thin tank top and short-shorts, deep in meditation, the process clearly taking its toll. She had been sitting in this position, deep in a trance, for days, mentally willing the crystal's lattice to form to her designs. She did not desire just any mere crystal./span/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;"Ava desired a dark side crystal that mimicked the effects of the illusive Opila crystal. With this crystal's powers imbued in her saber, it would give her a cruel, sadistic edge in dueling, assassination, and other forms of battle. The crystal would send electric charges through the victim each time she slashed or cut with the blade. Ava's special addition to her crystal, a venomous sting the blade would leave in the victim should they survive the initial cut. It would cause the eviscerated portion of their body to burn as if it were on fire. Ava had uncovered the ideas for this crystal in a book she found in the Sith Academy library. Originally, the concoction was for an insidious poison created by an unnamed, so the book said, Dark Lady of the Sith who, by heritage, was a Pureblood of a Noble House, skilled with unique methods of manipulation and assassination. At the time, Ava did not think much of the creator of this burning poison./span/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Several more hours passed. Finally, Ava started to open her eyes. The crystal blazed with a reddish-purple fire, but it had taken shape. Sweat stung at her eyes, pouring from her pale brow. She focused more intently, lifting the formed crystal out of the forge and holding it in mid-air. This was necessary as she assembled the other unique attributes of her saber. The blackened hilt formed together out of a discharged power cell from an Imperial blaster rifle, opened a hatch in the side which enabled the crystal to be set within the weapon. Ava had set an extender on the back end of the blade to form it into a double-blade. She had already formed two minor crystals as support gems for the weapon's increasingly complex power system. She watched her saber form together remarkably flawlessly. The smooth, sleek, black weapon seemed to encapsulate Ava's essence perfectly. She reached out and took the weapon in her hands, igniting the blade with a snap-hiss of pure power./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"The saber was complete. The blade emitted a reddish-orange color, embodying pure darkness, and hiding the truth of the pain it could inflict behind a smooth, beautiful blade. She stayed conscious just long enough to deactivate the saber then collapsed from utter exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, and sleep deprivation./span/span/span/p 


	7. Chapter 7

p style="margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"br /br /p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Tales of the Sanguine Empire- Part VII /span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"The sound of laughter rung out around the large bar. An odd sound, usually, but this was an unusual night. Several Acolytes sat along one side of the bar, each with a drink in their hands save one of them. Ava was reluctant to join her friends in their celebration. They were soon to be graduates. In three weeks, they would complete a course of study that had lasted more than twelve years. "Come on Ava... Just one. One drink. Come on, 'my lady'" her friend, Sira, teased. She felt uneasy, as if things were happening too easy, too fast. She smiled and gave in, but before she could order from the bartender, Sira yelled out, "Mandalorian Sledgehammer!" Ava blinked and stammered, "now wait a second!" Sira shut Ava's mouth with a hand, "Nope! You, my friend, are going to loosen up!" Ava sulked for a moment/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"But when the drink cane, she nearly fell off the bar stool, the aroma was so pungent and powerful, am odd steam coming off the beverage was not reassuring either. "Uhm... Is this... Stuff... Safe to drink?" Ava asked, looking for any way to get out of this. Sira shrugged, "who knows, but you're tough! You can take it!" With that, Sira and two others practically held Ava in place and poured the foul drink down her throat. Ava gagged and giggled, falling over. "Another?" Sira asked, both eyebrows raised expectantly. "Another!" Ava yelled, laughing./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;"Hours passed, full of a night of celebration, storytelling, and joviality. Ava forgot her bad feeling. Dawn soon approached and the group realized they needed to stagger back to the academy. As they retrieved their things, a large imposing figure blocked the doorway. Ava, deferred to as the strongest of the group, rose and cleared her mind for a moment. Her command of the Force was impressive but only for an Acolyte. She approached the figure and spoke respectfully at first, "my Lord, if you would please move aside, my comrades and I must return to the academy." The figure pulled back its hood to reveal a male human Sith Lord, nothing terribly noteworthy in appearance. But Ava would remember him for years after tonight. One day he would pay for crossing her. But not today. "I am Lord Tersas of Dromund Kaas. I have been watching you and your... Friends... For hours now. You have no respect for the Empire. For the training you've been given. For yourselves." He pushed Ava out of the way with a Force powered shove. "By imperial decree, one of you should be punished for this night of insolence and indolence... You." He pointed at Sira. "You shall die. That will send the appropriate message."/span/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Ava was becoming enraged. 'Clearly,' she thought, 'this buffoon wants to kill someone for his own satisfaction.' "No one dies today, my Lord." Ava shrieked on him and pulled him away from her friend. "No one except you if you pursue this." The Sith glared and laughed in amusement, "showing mercy? I should kill you for that too! All of you!" Ava tsked, casually reaching for her lightsaber at her waist, "you would be held responsible for killing off an entire class of Acolytes." He laughed, standing up, ripping his lightsaber from its clip on his belt and igniting the blade with a snap-hiss of power. "So, you need a blade lesson hmm?" Ava snorted in derision, igniting her own custom blade, "you need to remove your head from your ass, my Lord." With that, the Sith Lord attacked, feverishly. His rashness allowed time for Ava's friends to slip out through the exit. However, the Sith Lord was not entirely unskilled. He parried every single one of Ava's attacks until she began to tire and make mistakes./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;""Now, little one, I won't kill you, but I will give a lesson you'll remember." Tersas roared and with one strike knocked Ava staggering back and falling to the ground. Another strike sent her lightsaber flying. She would eventually find it covered in sand outside the Academy. Tersas towered over her. She reached out to pull her saber to her hand. It was all the opening he needed. He brought the crimson blade down in one swift stroke, severing Ava's hand at the wrist. She stared at the stump in silence before crying out in agony. Tersas smiled, knowing he had won, putting his hood up and walking outside./span/span/span/p 


	8. Chapter 8

p style="margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"br /br /p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;"Tales of the Sanguine Empire part VIII- /span/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;"Ava angrily flexed the mechanical hand, newly grafted to her right wrist. She had required additional surgery to trim and line the stump; lightsabers do not make the best laser scalpels. She then underwent a second, elective, surgery to have songsteel blades grafted into the fingers of the cybernetic device. She chose to use new nanotechnology to make the blades somewhat flexible, enabling her to bend her fingers. The hand itself was forged out of an endo-Duranium composite alloy, offering more flexibility and the capability to use the hand as a weapon itself./span/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;"She still found the hand difficult to get used to. Medical technology had come a long way, but it could not provide real feeling. The hand was dead weight. She hated it. But she kept it as a reminder of her failure, rather than petitioning for limb regrowth. She shook her head and reached for her flight suit. It was two weeks until graduation, and Ava was on her first patrol cruise with the Imperial Navy. Each Acolyte chose a specialty in the Imperial hierarchy to focus on in their careers. Ava happened to take an interest in naval air forces. Her superiors thought this strange since she had been trained as an assassin./span/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;"However, Ava had explained to and convinced her superiors that proper flight training and squadron leadership would enable her to take on riskier espionage and assassination missions. They acquiesced and assigned Ava as flight lead in the Imperial 215th Assault Squadron based on the Harrower-class dreadnaught /span/span/span/spanspan style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"emspan style="background: #36393f;"Sacrosanct/span/em/span/span/spanspan style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;". She piloted an imperial MK. VI interceptor and in her first four missions, scored sixteen Republic fighter and bomber kills, plus two planetside staffing runs killing dozens. As flight-lead she had no real command authority, other than to make sure her flight followed the Squadron Leader's orders. However, she routinely went off on her own with her Flight, acting independently but within mission parameters. This initially angered her commanding officer but impressed those far above Ava. She was on her way to becoming a true ace./span/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"span style="background: #36393f;"Ava slipped her helmet on, securing the gear on her suit, and walked out of the pilot ready room towards the hangar on the Sacrosanct. Her mission orders were on a data-card stored in her wrist pocket of her glove. Objective: disable and capture the escaping cruiser. Her entire Squadron was with her, but her Flight of five fighters was instructed to complete the mission. The others could assist "as necessary". It was up to Ava to invent proper strategy for dealing with the cruiser. She walked through the entryway doors and up the gangplank. Technician yeomen helped her into the cockpit of the angular strike-fighter. Solar panels made up the wings which powered the engines, and two laser cannons made up its primary armament. Once the hatch was sealed, she started powering up the shields, engines, weapons, and navigation. Shields did not terribly concern her. She spoke into the Comm system "Sacro tower, this is Raptor 1-Alpha requesting permission to depart." "Raptor 1-Alpha, this is Sacro Actual, you are cleared for departure from bay 1-Delta, good hunting." "Confirmed."/span/span/span/span/p 


	9. Chapter 9

p style="margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"br /br /p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Tales of the Sanguine Empire – Part IX /span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Ava whirled her fighter around to fire a stream of emerald energy at the retreating strikecraft, bearing imperial markings. Two of the laser blasts caught the enemy fighter's rear shields and burned through them. Adjusting her aim as she closed on the fighter, Ava squeezed off a few more bolts, catching the fighter's engines and blazing through the stabilizer and life support systems. She watched in satisfaction as the craft turned into a momentary fireball, then became icy wreckage in the black of space. "Raptor one to all, that was the last fighter. Let's take care of the cruiser. Form up and lock onto the shield generators. Then focus on the engines."/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"While her flight took care of the shields, she lined her own fighter up to enter the hangar bay. "Lady Ava, please don't do something stupid." Her squadron-mate, Kex, Raptor Two, pleaded over the comm. She allowed his openness, it felt like a comfort in a way. "Oh, it is all part of a plan, Kex." "That's what I'm afraid of." He was the only one she allowed to speak to her so familiarly. "Shields down! We estimate twenty minutes til they are cleared for hyperspace." "Roger. Cover me. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes, blow the bridge, and finish the mission." She spoke firmly. "Yes Commander." With that, she put her engines on full and sped into the cruiser's hangar bay./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Landing awkwardly, she lept out of the hatch of her fighter, lightsaber igniting in her hands, cutting down the rebels in her midst. Spinning feverishly to deflect the incoming blaster bolts of arriving marines, she reached out and pulled them close to her, then snapped several of their necks. Switching off her saber, taking her helmet off and affixing it to her utility belt, she charged into an access passageway, expecting the ship to be fully alert. From the scarring in the bulkheads, it appeared not everyone was in league with the traitors. Her goal was the engine room. She would plant several small bombs and set the cruiser adrift./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Ava crept along a narrow starboard passageway, leaving a small trail of bodies in her wake. Finally, she came upon a large room, covered floor to ceiling with sizable humming energy tubes that fed the gigantic engines of the warship. However, Ava knew she only needed explosives planted on a small partition. A support structure, that would cripple not only the ship's engines, but life support, artificial gravity, and weapons systems. She set to work planting the bombs, killing errant troopers on her way./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%; background: #36393f;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: inherit, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Her task done, she jogged back to the hangar bay, stole one of the mark VI fighters, given that hers was crippled, and flew out of the bay. At a distance of 100 meters, she hit the switch and flames gutted from inside the ship. Looking back, she was indeed adrift, powerless, lifeless. All lights had gone out, and in minutes the crew would be suffocating./span/span/span/p 


	10. Chapter 10

Part X-

Rexane Spectre opened her eyes with a sigh, she was alone in her room, Ari had turned in for the night after her training and Lady Ava was off doing whatever it was she did…and Lady Jen…was overseeing them all as usual. She got up, naked, like she always slept and walked over to her desk, pulling out a small computer and a holocron. Now is as good a time as any…and it needs to be done. She thought to herself, "Computer, record and upload to Aegis server ghost drive, triple redundancy with mutating algorithm." The computer beeped in acknowledgment and she sighed, "To those that hear this…let me tell you a story…" Prologue: Rexia was breathing heavily as she kept her training saber in a guard, watching the other supplicant as he circled around her, Curse you, Harkin, she thought to herself, pitting me against a brute that only understands that beating something to death is the way to solve everything. She moved like a gymnast, using the Ataru style as her main weapon her ice blue eyes gazing upon the male supplicant as his chest rose and fell, his breathing labored, she could see he was exhausted, it was time to strike. She landed behind him and smashed the butt of the saber into the back of his neck, dropping him to the ground before she stabbed the saber through the back of his head, killing him without remorse. Those watching who were supplicants as well as the apprentices looked on, their eyes widening at her cold kill while the Lords and Darths looked on with impassive faces while internally smirking or out loud cackled with glee. None of it mattered though, she was now done with this training, she could go back home to work on personal projects and if her master was smart, they would let her continue them, after all she was from a family of spies.

The trip home to Dromund Kaas took about as it did when she left to go train as a Sith on Korriban, for her parents it was a great honor, Rexia being the first Sith in two generations in the Terrik family. She knew her sister Roxanne was jealous, but at eighteen years of age and being the youngest child, Rexia didn't care, Roxanne was always a petulant little bitch about everything and Jaxon…he was gone…died on a mission with Imperial Special Operations, on some planet, the details were sketchy, like they always were with covert missions. Rexia's shuttle landed on Dromund Kaas and took a landspeeder to the family estate…the rental agency she walked into hadn't even charged her…perks of being a Sith? She was almost to the family estate when she saw smoke coming from it…smoke, why would? She leapt from the speeder and ran towards the burning estate, she then heard her speeder explode behind her, she turned around and the world went black.


	11. Chapter 11

Part XI-

_Current Day – Operations_

Ava woke slowly, coming to consciousness in the din of a Force-infused dream. Strange visions and specters had been appearing to her and she had no idea hoe to interpret them. 'No matter', she thought. It was time review the future operations in her war against the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. She had no nefarious plans, all her operations would be planned to the letter. She slipped out of the large bed covered in black and red silks which she more than occasionally shared with Lady Jen.

Draping her robes over her lithe frame, Ava walked over the communications and intelligence hub installed in one of the neighboring rooms. Networking up to and downloading select files from Rexia's infonet, she scanned the copies and started writing the new information for upload.

\- Operation Daybreak -

Launching and revealing of Sanguine Empire forces against the Republic, targeting primary medical hubs, major mid-rim infrastructure planets, and Republic shipyards with the aim of inflicting surface damage.

\- Operation Shattered Resolve -

Capturing of three primary Sith Empire shipyards in the mid-rim to bolster Sanguine Imperial navy forces.

\- Operation Nightmare - Invasion of mid-rim heavy industry planets of both the Republic and Sith Empire. Infrastructure must be intact. Estimated force utilization: five heavy flotillas, and 8 legions of ground troops.

\- Operation Iron Will -

Purification of the Sith Core Worlds. To be planned in the future. Anticipate heavy resistance.

\- Operation Ascension -

Seizing the Sith Empire's throneworld, Dromund Kaas. Planning TBD.

\- Operation Wildfire -

Complete assault against the Republic and their Core Worlds. Alderaan, Corellia, and Coruscant, in particular.

\- Operation Heavensent -

Liberation and occupation of Coruscant. Estimated time to begin this campaign: 4 years, 10 months.

Ava had a special surprise planned for her mistress and love. She had no intention of claiming the imperial throne for herself. This necessitated additional covert operations. - Operation Hellfire -

Elimination of priority Sith targets. Target list to be uploaded with security clearance classification Aurek-one.  
\- Operation Reckoning -

Elimination of key Sith Noble Houses. List available per review of Aurek-Abbaddon clearance.

\- Operation Bludgeon -

Elimination of Empress Acina. Force composition: Death Stalker insertion team, Darth Sanguine herself. No others.

-Another user has logged in.-

_**~current day~**_


	12. Chapter 12

Part XII -

Planet Eriadu, Outer Rim, Seswenna Sector Day 113 of the Siege Sergeant Symon, field report, 512th Assault Battalion, 3rd Imperial Legion – We landed on this cursed piece of rock almost four months ago, when Empress Ava'kra declared war for the Imperial Throne. We were among the first units in the Imperial Military to declare loyalty to Her Majesty. We saw in her the potential for something greater. We knew a civil war would be brutal. We thought we were prepared. Then came Eriadu.

We landed with the rest of the 3rd Legion, joined a few days later by the newly defected 5th Legion and the 17th. Empress Ava'kra's charisma and dreams are infectious even now, to sway so many troops. Eriadu shows what bloodbaths she will have to go through to win the throne. We knew we would be up against the 85th, 450th, and 12th Imperial Legions. Some of the most battle-hardened troops in the Sith Empire. We marched out of our transports and dropships, proudly carrying our Empress's banner.

It was almost too easy, at first. That should have been our first clue. It was the same tactics we had employed against the Republic at Balmorra. Attrition. Slow and bloody. By the eighth week, we had stopped gaining ground, and most of the 85th and 12th had holed up in two of the major cities. We were ordered to preserve the infrastructure, and civilian life, which meant no orbital bombardment. It necessitated street by street, building by building clearing. At least we had eliminated the 450th, except for their damn air support. Our own fliers are STILL trying to locate their airbase. Their artillery is starting again, I hope this report reaches you. - Sgt. Symon

-this has been a letter from the Imperial Front-


	13. Chapter 13

Part XIV-

_**-current day- **_

Ava walked restlessly throughout her apartment. Technically, her Mistress's apartment, but Ava happily called it home. Usually. "An eleven billion credit interstellar communications hub and the bulk of the Sith Empire's intelligence network at my fingertips and I _still _cannot get live reports on _my _war." She growled in irritation in the vacant apartment. She scrolled through the holonet for what must have been the millionth time in half an hour. She stopped at a broadcast of the Imperial News Network that caught her eye.

The seal of the Sith Empire glowed bright behind the news anchor, a youngish woman with a clipped Core accent and darker features, long hair worn down past her shoulders, and wearing a Coruscanti style business suit. "This is Ami Patton for the Imperial News Network, bringing you up to date on the rebellion in the Outer Rim." Ava scoffed, "not just the Outer Rim, 'Ami'" she mocked the reporter's name in disgust. "The Empire holds strong against these upstart rebels who would undo our harmony. They pose little danger and will soon be dealt with. Now in sports, the latest in Huttball galactic championships... -" Ava promptly chucked the remote against the wall, shattering the device. "Time to speed up the timetable."

Rexane comes over the comm, "Lady Ava, do you really want me to remove the press blackout yet?"

Ava growled. "I... No.. Not yet. It would doom us." She relented.

"We do have ground footage and live streams for your viewing pleasure if you wish, my lady."

Ava bolted upright out of sleep, jumping out of bed, her naked form running to the data console in the next room, crunching numbers and evaluating select members of her growing military on her viewscreen. She tapped the communicator on a different screen, well aware of lack of clothing, but simply not caring. "Rex, i know you're awake. I have an idea that will solve all our propaganda communication problems."

Rexane has her computer up in her lab with Ari in the room with her, "Go on?" Ava grins slightly at the sight of the two but remains focused. "We start our own counter-news network. Call it whatever. Call it through Sanguine Galactic News, or something. We feature gun-camera footage of the fighting as it is taking place, on the ground, in the sky, in space. We feature interviews from soldiers on frontlines from Eriadu, to Rhen Var to Balmorra, galaxy wide. We feature journalists, vetted by you, on the ground or in the fleet, during the action. We transmit across the galaxy by piggy backing on INN hubs and networks." "Of course, I will activate everything that is already in place and begin the shuttling of journalists to locations. How deep do you want to go into the missions?"


	14. Chapter 14

Part XV-

"Special Ops are off limits. But I want at least three journalists with each Battalion and Squadron." "Of course, would you prefer gender or alien specific or just three that are used to the planets?" "I'm not discriminatory. As long as they know the planets, they're loyal, and they can handle the heat of combat, they qualify. Unlike previous imperial rulers, I am not bigoted. What matters is integrity and loyalty to the Empire, and skill for the job to which they are assigned." "Of course, and no, we shall call it something more ambiguous, we don't want them coming after us yet, I am going to hijack the Galactic News Network feeds. I even have a mobile news ship prepared to launch. "So soon? Always a step ahead... " Rex_ laughs_ "I learned a long time ago with you, Lady Ava, prepare for everything, for the bladed fighter pilot will always surprise you." "I also have assassination target lists for your review, planetary governor placements, faction choices and many other items for your purview." "Forward it all. This is most excellent." She arches an eyebrow, "I took many, including my instructors, by surprise, when I opted to join the Imperial Navy Starfighter Corps. Strange for an assassin they said, but I found it liberating rather than being stuck on the ground, dependent and reliant on air support and transport to retrieve you." "As they did when I chose small blades over sabers, they never understood the silence besides the blood spray, it should be at your terminal momentarily. Another bit of news, I installed a quantum transporter from your apartment to my Kaasian base, I can install more in locations of our choosing if you wish." "A quantum transporter?" Ava asked doubtfully. "Yes, it is based off of Rakata technology that I was able to reverse-engineer in combination with quantum communication technology. Just personnel at this time. It is quite expensive to build at this time as well, so we won't have too many." "A hundred years ago, people would have called this magic" "As they would have about my other body, we are on the cutting edge, Blacktalon Arms has our custom shipments ready, which planet do you want to have them first?"

"Primary shipment count is 50,000." "50,000 is 'a few'?""Compared to the next shipment, which is ten times that, Lady Ava, yes, it is." "Modifiable rifles, flip up sights, detachable scopes, ability to use expanded magazines as well as the possibility to use kinetic or blaster rounds, under-barrel attachments as needed." Ava lets out a low whistle, "and to think I contracted out for tanks, walkers, and starships... " Rex chuckles, "She did most of the ship weapons for us as well, you know." "Not Rothana techs?" Ava asked "We got some from them as well, she is able to reverse-engineer most weapons including Mandalorian gear." Rex explained. "Ah, primitives… " "Their ideals are, yes, but they do make decent weapons." Rex noted.

"Their ideals, their worlds, their culture, their society... " Ava quipped.

"True, but it does make them useful tools, you never told me which planet you would like the weapons delivered to?" Rex noted in a sardonic question.

"Three planets. Key staging worlds all under siege. Eriadu, Mon Cala, and Serenno." Ava answered succinctly. "Divided evenly, I assume?" Rex asked, making notations. "No. Divided based on greatest need pending evaluation." Ava replied. Of course, as you command. Any other orders?" Rex asked patiently.

"Not at this time. That about covers it for tonight." Ava was already putting her files away. "Of course, you look gorgeous tonight by the way, Lady Ava." Rex noted her nude silhouette on the monitor. Ava could not help a smirk, "what can I say, I woke up this way." "Surprised you didn't wake up dripping, my lady." She could not resist a lewd comment. Ava rolled her eyes, "you really are the worst." She noted the last word with discernible emphasis. Rex chuckles, "And you can't get enough of it, either."

"Must be why I keep you around." Ava noted wryly. "That, and you really don't want to run all this tech by yourself, my lady." Rex smirked. "No, that's true... I would lose my mind." Ava conceded. "You also don't have many other people alive that you still trust either, you are not a smart woman to cross or betray, at least if you want to live a long life." Rex dug at her. "This... Is true. I'm not the same woman I was coming out of the academy." She let down her guard for a moment. "I remember, I read some of the reports on your history, and the rest...we experienced together...even though I made mistakes." Rex grimaced. Ava holds up her cybernetic hand, "You made mistakes?!" She exclaimed.

"Yes, remember the last form I took in the HRD body before you left as well as some of the others. Those were my mistakes..." She confessed honestly. "Some would dream of having a droid body..."Ava remarked. "They would...and some saw it as a curse." Rex lamented. "Two sides to each blade." Ava mused. "There always is, it just depends on how you are willing to wield the blade." Rex said wistfully.

"Everyone has a struggle. The question is whether you will be consumed by it, or rather, master it with unified strength and power." Ava intoned.

Rex looks directly into the holo cam so that Ava can see her violet eyes, "Pain is power, overcome it to gain strength and create a new Empire as you wished."

Ava stared straight back, ice in her silver eyes. Her hair would be silver as well in proper Echani style, but she had taken to dying her hair. This month, a raven black. She grinned, sporting her freshly filed fangs, "well that sounds like someone we know."

Rex smiles, "I have one request though before we take care of the Empire."

"And that is?" Ava quirked an eyebrow and waited.

"I wish to become a Darth, if possible, to better assist you and Lady Jen." Ava arched a brow, "only an empress may appoint one to such a rank... Do you think you have earned it?"  
"That is for my record to speak for then my opinion, my lady, but my opinion would be yes."

"We all say yes... Darth Marr interrogated me quite thoroughly before I was awarded my Darth rank." Ava explained softly. "So, I am to assume I will be the first Darth of the new Empire?" Rex asked with a bit of probing hope. "If I approve, yes." Ava cautioned. "Of course, I trust your judgment, my lady." Rex conceded. "Usually an anointing of a Darth requires more ceremony." Ava mused. Rex chuckles in response, "I remember a man who did that, loved his pomp and circumstance, you might actually like him, he is quite respectful." "Unless he bends the knee, I doubt I'd care for an audience." "He would, he is a diplomat and I am sure Lady Morrigan, Fyona's sister would also put in a good word about you to him, she is his assistant." "Mmhmm... Be sure he understands that at the slightest inkling of disrespect, I will cut his tongue out. And I don't need lackeys to do it. I will do it myself, and I will do it slowly and take pleasure in his agony." Ava mentioned with venom in her tone. Rex chuckles again in response to Ava's threatening tone, "The man thrives on respect and spoken word, he will understand." Ava scowled, quipping "He had better. I risk nothing by this. He risks everything." "I am aware, we are not going to tell him until we need to." "Mmhmm, and what does this man have to do with you becoming a Darth?" Ava asked in bemusement. "Nothing, just mentioning potential allies." Rex replied nonchalantly. "I see." Ava said then closed the connection.


	15. Chapter 15

Part XVI _**current day ~ **_

Ava flicked two switches in her cockpit, adjusting the refraction of her cockpit transparisteel canopy. She was putting her fighter through its paces after the latest battle in which her craft suffered two indirect hits to her starboard solar panel array. She didn't trust technician to tune her fighter just the way she needed it, so she learned the maintenance routines herself. Her personal S-12-X Blackbolt strike-fighter/heavy scout was truly one of a kind. No one else in the galaxy could handle the craft, hence the "X" designation. She had stripped all armor plating off the Blackbolt, and left nothing but a small ultralight shield generator for emergency defense. All default weapons had been stripped off as well, and replaced with four light laser cannons, linked into a central targeting computer. She carried three proton micro-torpedoes or six micro cluster missiles. The craft had no life support, no hyperdrive, no electronic counter-measures, and was by far the fastest strike-fighter in the galaxy for the time. It was a craft designed to be piloted by not just a skilled pilot, but a Sith Lord. Ava loved it. She adored the challenge. Her latest adjustments were cosmetic; repainting the fuselage in her faction's black and ruby color scheme, and applying the emblem of the Sanguine Empire to her ship's wings; A red visage of twin dragon heads snarling over the Sith Empire's logo, one slightly towered of over the other.

_**~several years ago~ **_

Standing outside the academy entrance, clad in black short-shorts and a black tank top with black field boots to match, Ava spent the final days leading up to graduation in a fixed routine ever since she returned from her tour with the Navy. Her classes were over, but she was watched constantly as tests of her character were conducted. She woke early, around four in the morning and worked out until mid-day, had a short meal period, then sparring until communal dinner, then meditation. None of this was listed as mandatory of course. But it was what Ava adhered to leading to graduation. However, every fifth night was a free night, unrestricted.

Ava was determined to spend the evening in meditation, but several of her graduating classmates refused to allow this. "Come on Ava.. You'll love this. High speeds, destruction, blood, right up your alley." One of her colleagues, a young Zabrak woman named Mila, quipped. "Fiiiiine." Ava relented. "Where are we going?" She inquired, her curiosity piqued as she threw on a robe. "Far side of the planet. I bribed a shuttle pilot to take us." Answered Qimish, a human male with ruddy brown hair and otherwise unremarkable features. How he had survived over a decade of training was anyone's guess. Ava had guessed it was either pure dumb luck, or the Force really was with him.


	16. Chapter 16

Part XVII

The small group arrived at a village on Korriban named Losttown, "you brought us to this... Dump?" Ava asked Qimish, incredulous. "It's not the town" he replied, "it's beneath the town." Ava was even more confused. "Are you on spice?" She asked, half-serious. "No, he's right! Look!" Mila exclaimed, pointing to a shack with lights emanating from within. "Come on!" Ava followed, her hand on her lightsaber just in case. In the shack, they found a stairway heading downwards into darkness. The lights came from the sides and ceiling, illuminating within the structure. "Down here Ava!" Qimish called as he practically ran down the stairs. "Wait!" Ava called, but neither of the other two listened. "Might as well be talking to the air... "

When they reached the bottom, it was much different than the ghost town above. This was a bustling city oriented around a makeshift track. "What the..." Ava exclaimed. "Speeder bike racing. No rules. Right up your alley... Just what you could use. We also have a two hundred credit bet riding on you, so... " Qimish remarked, "but... I've never raced before. I don't even have a bike!" Ava protested. "We acquired one! Don't ask how." Mina snickered, walking forward with a black and yellow Marzotti Speedster Mk. I. And an accompanying yellow helmet. "Don't let us down!" Mila said cutely, tossing the helmet to Ava. This is how it all began.

___current day___

Broadcasting from a secure location in the inner rim, a young dark haired Coruscanti woman with olive skin, dressed in a black field uniform with the dual dragon head emblem of the Sanguine Empire sat behind a desk in front of a trio of holo cameras. As the producer counted down, she turned to the center camera and flashed a gleaming smile once the overhead lights winked green signaling that they were on air. "Good welcome citizens of both the Sith Empire, and the Galactic Republic. I bring you greetings on this illustrious day. We have interrupted your regular holocasts for this important message. - - steadily the backdrop was filled with the banner of the Sanguine Empire. The reporter continued, "today, striking from hidden bases and shipyards, a new Empire is taking root. These forces, commanded by a hero unlike any other in the history of the galaxy, are fighting for you. The Lady Ava'kra, formerly of the Sith Empire, having cast off her chains, is even now, struggling to bring peace, order, and justice to the galaxy." The background changed to exaggerated imagery of Ava leading her rebels into battle on various planets. "Her Order is neither Jedi or Sith." Another lie, but such was propaganda. "She fights for you; she fights for all of us. Her power brings peace. Join us. The Sanguine Empire has arrived to free the galaxy from the yoke of oppression from the Republic and the Sith Empire." The imagery winked out of existence, with the Sanguine Empire's emblem the last image seen.


	17. Chapter 17

Part XVIII

~ current day~ Planet: Rhen Var Outer Rim Thanium Sector Day 20 of Initial Landing Commander Myklos, field report, 332nd Stryker (Combined Arms Combat) Battalion, 3rd Imperial Legion "I hope this is transmitting. Hard to tell through these ice storms. This is Field Report twenty-Aurek. Right now, the Sanguine Empire is bogged down in sieges across nine worlds. There is audacity, then there is stupidity. But who dares question Empress Sanguine without fear of punishment? No one. I hear she is planning a move against Kuat next...this is insanity. Eriadu, Turkana, Rhen Var, now Kuat? She is going to lose everything in this mad power grab of hers. The Sith Empire outnumbers us nearly ten to one. The Republic, nearly fifteen to one. We do not have the numbers. She gets more aggressive each day. I admit I admire her ideals...it is why so many of us defected to her cause. And more join her each day I hear. But it isn't enough. I am expected to take this iceball with my Legion alone..I face two Sith Legions led by a battle hardened SITH LORD. Ava'kra has tried to take Rhen Var before. She wants the manufacturing facilities here. I can't say I blame her. But this plan is madness! The eight-eleventh Legion is already pounding our drop-zones with airstrikes. We CANNOT hold our location much less the planet!" Ava sat in her high-backed command chair in her improvised throne aboard the _Endurance_, her flagship and dreadnaught. She reviewed the field report sent to Sanguine High Command and forwarded by Rex. She glared at the datapad in her hands. "There's always a way to pull out the traitors. A shame that the three-thirty-second has to perish in order for one disgraced traitor to learn his lesson. But war is hell. And I am not in a merciful mood. The three-thirty-second will be remembered as martyrs and used to galvanize the forces under your command, Apprentice."

She looked to the cloaked figure at her feet, "You will take three Legions, in force, plus appropriate naval support. Lay waste to the planet. Leave the manufacturing facilities intact...kill all who oppose you. Wait for the traitor battalion to be eliminated before ferrying your forces in-system. Rhen Var is yours to conquer. For the Sanguine Empire. Rise, and kill those in your path." She turned away in her command chair, once more gazing out the large transparisteel window. Ava looked not out the window, but at the datapad, she flipped through pages of information until she found she one she was most interested in. "The head of the snake..." She murmured, looking over the Sith dossier on the leadership of the 811th Legion of the Sith Empire. "Darth Bactris." She spoke softly to herself, "You've done well for yourself, my old friend. I wonder, would you bend the knee? You were never one for absolute loyalty. But you did worship the old ways...and the decrepit dying Empire you serve. No, you would rather perish in battle. Yes, I know, she would would prefer this...no, no, I would not deny her a warrior's death. Should I see to it myself? Hmm...That is an idea. I am certain my apprentice can handle it. Besides, I have bigger mynoks to fry." She walked over to the strategic table and pulled up a 3D holo-map of the known galaxy, a pulsing red dot in the Mid-Rim standing out from the blue hue of the map. "Kuat." She breathed. It would be the largest military operation of her war. Seizing Kuat, and the vital Kuat Drive Yards from the Sith Empire would be monumental. There would be no turning back at that point. She would be truly committed. Not that she wasn't already. However, until this point there was always a chance to stop, to withdraw, to conceal. Once she committed to Kuat, it was too big an operation to turn back. It was the point of no return. And Ava was committed. Eriadu would be taken soon, and once Turkana and Rhen Var were hers, sufficient forces would be freed up to stage an all-out assault on Kuat and their attendant drive yards. All fifteen Legions of ground troops and thirty-two flotillas of warships. She would likely hold sizable portions in reserve. But she would not need as many as most warlords. She was a Sith Lord and she would be personally leading this battle. She relished the thought. Savored it. Dare to say, it made her excited. In orbit above Eriadu, a Harrower-class battle cruiser slid into position and from its forward launch bays, began to disgorge its deadly cargo of bombers, ground-attack strike fighters, and dropships escorted by interceptors. It was the final strike to conquer Eriadu. The dropships unloaded assault droids and new Mk. VII battle tanks, state of the art designs ripped from Sith Intelligence, as well as Research and Development spheres. In orbit, the battle cruiser, the Resolute, opened fire on the few remaining warships of the Republic and Sith naval reserves. The few frigates in-system tried to form a stiff defense but could not match the firepower of the Harrower plus its starfighter compliment. Half the strike-fighter contingent escorted the dropships to Eriadu's surface, most of the fighters came back to protect their mothership, _Resolute_.


	18. Chapter 18

Part XIX-

The Sanguine bombers formed into their necessary squadrons and set up bombing runs against the warships. With Resolute unloading long-range torpedoes and turbolaser fire, the opposing vessels were quickly destroyed. The bombers and their fighter escorts then proceeded to the planet's surface, to provide air support where needed. However, at least three bomber squadrons were tasked with obliterating the planetary headquarters, defense systems control, and the controls for the planetary SDS – Space Defense System. Rexane entered the room where Kuat's leaders and the family were seated, she had chosen to wear a very classy gray business suit instead of her Sith outfit to maintain the facade she wanted to keep until the last moment. She glanced upon all the faces with a smile, making her presentation about the Spectre brand of shipbuilding equipment, even though all of it was a complete fabrication. Upon finishing she took questions and heard the all-important question, knowing that the troops she had brought with her, her Ghost brigade were all prepared for the takeover to commence, having disconnected the alarms and communications. The Kuati head asked when she could deliver, and she answered, "As soon as you submit to the Sanguine Empire." She reveled internally at the look of confusion and then horror that crossed their collective faces. "We will not submit to you!" The Kuati leader almost screamed at her, "We are a Republic aligned installation and one of the largest shipyards in the galaxy, call the guards!" With that she sighed and the door to the conference room shut as the intercom went dead, the last sight that most of the fearful Kuati's saw was the secretary passed out at her desk. "Now then," she said with an edge to her voice, "Will you comply or must I make examples of some of you?" The leader sneered at her, "You are just a lowly office worker, a delegate or at best a lowly ambassador." he answered in a taunting tone. "And there is no such empire as the Sanguine Empire." He declared triumphantly, still trying to maintain control of the conversation.

Rexane smiled deviously at the leader and walked over to the giant burning fireplace at the edge of the room, placing her hand over the flame as she began to count in her mind, keeping part of the Force focused on healing the minor skin burn she was getting while absorbing the energy from the flame. The leader of the Kuati family continued to rant and sputter about how she would pay for her intrusion and never get away with this egregious act of terrorism and con artistry. She let him go on for about fifteen minutes or so before she removed her hand from the flame and turned back to him, finally acknowledging his ramblings. Her eyes began to glow a brighter purple and she almost had a demonic look to her as she gazed upon him, coming closer, step by step. "You think that a lowly person would bother coming here, to offer you what I have?" She moves her hands behind her back and the leader is force dragged to the wall where a view port looks out upon the shipyard, "You have two options," she stated matter of factly, "Bend the knee to the Sanguine Empire, or I shall depose you and find someone that will." He screamed back at her, red faced, "Never! We are proud to be part of the Republic and will never give in to you and your ilk!" Rexane sighed and then flicked her wrist, cutting off his ability to speak, he could still open his mouth but no sound would come out.

She then turned to the rest of the family, "My Mistress will be here in about thirty minutes, she will accept submission or this entire area, including the planet, shall be razed until there is nothing left but dust. I should prefer to work with you and your talents instead of taking it from your corpses like carrion, however that is based entirely on your choice. Yes, the entire survival of the population of Kuat rests on what your answer is to me. You can save them all, or damn them all. You have twenty-five minutes to decide, feel free to ask for details though if you wish." She then walked over to the head of the conference table and sat down, the leader still pinned to the wall on one side, and the cowering board members on the other. After twenty-four and a half minutes, a young man walked up cautiously to her and cleared his throat, "Ma'am?"

Rexane looked over at the young man, boy even, with a disdainful look, "What is it and who are you?" He stood up tall before answering, showing a bit of backbone, "Miss Spectre, I am the eldest son and heir to the Kuati dynasty, we agree to your terms, but we have one question for you. How will you guarantee our safety from the Republic and the Empire?" The father screamed at the son from his position on the wall, "Don't give into them, you dishonor your family and I shall make sure you are disowned and exiled!" Rexane smiled victoriously, "So you are the smart one of the family, you do not care for his life?" The son hung his head, "I do, but this is about survival, of us and the company, my lady. You did not answer my other question though, about safeguarding us here." Rexane stood up and walked over to the view port, "Give it a few moments," then a fleet began warping in, with Ava's flagship at the helm, she looks back at the son with a smile, "That answer your question, my boy?" The entire group's eyes widen collectively at the size and number of warships while he answers in awe, "Yes, yes it does, Kuat and all of our holdings are under the control of the Sanguine Empire."


	19. Chapter 19

Part XX

~Current Day, Coruscant, Core Worlds, Republic Space~

The low-light glowed dimly in the darkened office, a lone half-dressed figure sat hunched over a large stack of seemingly ancient Sith texts. The single source of light in the room emanating from the small desk lamp built into the wall monitor. It was another late night for Ava, the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sanguine, trying to uncover her past if for nothing more than personal edification. Though Ava knew, as a learned student of history, secrets of the past can lead to victories in the future. Her readings had her completely engrossed. The Dark Lord and Empress of the new Sith, or rather, Sanguine, Empire, quite literally translated as Empire of Blood, was half-sitting in the high-backed office chair, her raven-colored hair falling over her face, her half-naked form in a pair of armorweave leggings and nothing else, disheveled as a Mandalorian, as she started to read a revelation. For decades since her birth on her native Echan, and her subsequent involuntary "rebirth" of sorts on Korriban, she had no idea of her true parentage or origins in terms of her ancestral history. Now, thanks to contacts in the Sith Academy, and Sith Intelligence, she had managed to infiltrate the Academy Library on Korriban, she had access to the complete records, data files, and photographical evidence, usually under the purview of Sith Intelligence, of her entire family dating back to the First Great Schism and the exile of the first Dark Jedi Lords to Sith Space. Records from High General Ajunta Pall confirmed that Ava's direct-ancestor was a minor Lord in Pall's exiled retinue in the early days of the formation of the Sith Empire. This meant, above all, she was not a true, pure, Echani. Sith Intelligence was, of course, a hollow shell of its designed functional predecessor. The organization was steadily being infiltrated and usurped covertly by its Sanguine counterpart, especially in the aftermath of Darth Marr's death. Ava stood abruptly, knocking over the chair she had been in, "what..." She muttered in quiet exclamation. Ava knocked her beverage over in the process, though she did not care. Her dark bangs fell over her piercing white eyes as she continued to read, catching the glint of the old-fashioned looking fireplace. It was actually quite high-tech but her Mistress and lover did appreciate the classical aesthetic. Ava could not find fault with her logic; it was beautiful though her mind was steadily preoccupied as of late. She reread the passages several more times to be sure but there was no denying it. Long ago, during the infamous Mandalorian Wars, the Republic armies and navies were led by the rogue Jedi Commander and later Sith Lord, Revan.

What many did not know, nor did Ava until now, is that there were, among the active Republic military, several elite battalions of Echani Special Forces. Several of these battalions, roughly eighty percent, followed Revan loyally into the Unknown Regions, meeting the real, true Sith Empire, after the Mandalorians were defeated. They remained loyal to Revan even after he had been turned to the Dark Side by Emperor Vitiate. These Echani became Revan's new collective right-hand in Special Operations against the Republic. Most could not feel the Force, as such they were unaffected by its applications. Whenever Revan ordered missions against the Jedi or missions that involved Jedi leadership, or even operations with sensitive intelligence, or subject matter, the Legions of the Shadow Goddess were called upon. Fierce, brutal, deadly assassins trained since birth to be unstoppable, clad in white armorweave, and wielding elaborate native-forged ritual blades, few could match their prowess in combat. Ava was directly descended from their legions. After the Jedi Civil War, with Revan departing once again for the Sith Empire, notably Dromund Kaas, many of the Legion of the Shadow Goddess secretly accompanied him, largely upon the request of his wife, Bastila Shan. Once in Imperial Space, reports are scattered but most seem to agree that the Legion of the Shadow Goddess waited for Revan in orbit, but were discovered by the Sith navy. They went to ground on Dromund Kaas, giving up on finding Revan. Soon, they began meeting Pureblood Sith, passing as Imperial citizens, intermarrying, and subsequently interbreeding into the Empire. Several of these mixed Echani-Sith families eventually became members of Sith Nobility, "...back when meritocracy actually mattered." Ava muttered under her breath. The former Legion members swore allegiance to the Sith Empire throughout the centuries, and that allegiance had never been broken. Until Ava'kra. Ava's family could be traced back to a minor noble House that was largely wiped out, and the remnants absorbed by a larger House, while the survivors fled back to Echan. The more Ava read, the more things came to light. Ava found that she could trace her direct matrilineal bloodline to the executive officer of the 13th Shadow Legion, first of the Galactic Republic, then and most notably of the Revanite Sith Empire, Her ancestor, unfortunately unnamed in these texts, led the charge that broke the Republic line on Balmorra, and shattered the Republic's 160th Grenadiers with unseen savagery, likewise the 165th Republican Guards, a heavy armor detachment. She led the assault against the Republic defense of Ryloth that brought the planet under Revan's auspices. Her ancestor further developed and executed the crippling strikes at Corellia, Kuat Drive Yards, Rhen Var, and Eriadu on the Outer Rim, plus countless others for the Dark Lord. Ava's history was one of blood. The military exploits of Ava's ancestors had been largely forgotten, along with many others as the Sith Empire, under the Vaiken doctrine, prepared their war machine to march on the Galactic Republic, which Revan was supposed to have paved the way for. Ava's family had, regardless, lived on as loyal soldiers of the Empire, through the centuries until one young girl, having been born in exile on her ancestral homeworld of Echan, discovered her Force affinity, and was taken home to Korriban to live, train, and suffer at the Sith Academy.


	20. Chapter 20

Part XXI-

This was Ava. She was shocked to discover an entry regarding herself, including her arrival on Korriban at age six. She turned the next page and stopped cold. There in blood, the original 224 members of her entering class. By the time Ava graduated, twelve years later, her graduating class consisted of five students, including herself. In essence, her complete family history was well-chronicled in the Sith Archives, accessible only by the Dark Council, and the Emperor, when Vitiate lived. Ava's most immediate ancestor, her great-great grandmother, Sheva of Echan, married into a great Sith Noble House who happened to be placed in charge of chronicling the histories in the Imperial Archives. Ava's family history had been classified as one lowly bureaucrat put it, "a record of note due an Imperial citizen." In fact, much to Ava's surprise, every single member of her family, from the disembarking after Revan's final arrival on Dromund Kaas, to Ava's birth on Echan, had served in the Imperial Sith military in varying capacities, from intelligence, infantry, combat support, to mobile armor, navy, air and space supremacy, special forces, and more. With Ava, that life path had changed once she had been identified as Force sensitive. Each generation in her family, from her great grandmother on down, had made the pilgrimage from Echan to Sith Space in order to serve the Empire in the military, and lend their abilities to the Vaiken Doctrine's authority. When their term of service was up, her family members had honorably been discharged, ventured back to Echan, and started their family. In Ava's case it was slightly different. Her father was a Sith Lord, whom she had recently killed. He had commanded a small Sith outpost on the Outer Rim; a backwater planet with no name, importance, or value. It was an assignment designed as a punishment. Ava had killed her father as a mercy, and as far as she was concerned, it was far more than he deserved. He had been responsible for sending hunters after Ava and her mother on Echan for years, from her birth until her eventual abduction. It turns out her father was behind that action as well. Ava blinked in the dim light of the office, closing the book, staring at the leatheris-bound cover. She did not even realize the title when she started reading - "The Campaigns and Families of the Revanite Conquest." Ava actually teared up, feeling strangely vulnerable: It was her family. Finally, in intimate detail, over three hundred years-worth, her great, great grandmother, her aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, even her short-lived daughters, Raine and Ranna. She broke down upon the digging up of the memory, then she read about her mother, whom she had also killed on the day of her abduction at age six, without ever really getting to know her. Her reaction lasted only a moment, but was noticeable given her power, as rain started to batter the transparisteel windows outside where it had been a clear night just moments before. The murder of her mother was not a pleasant memory from Ava but the Sith Lord who compelled her to do so. In essence, Ava's murder of her mother was not the same as the conscious act she performed against her father, but rather an act of dark compulsion urged at the behest of that now-deceased Sith Lord who brought her home to Korriban. Though Ava will never regard the Academy as her home. It was her personal, familiar, interminable Hell. Yet it forged her will, her being, her mind, It was the prison her mind grew up in that shaped her thoughts, actions, and resolve. Her treatment within and outside of the Academy, as her power and rage grew, her pain did as well, and her desire to reshape and reforge the dying stagnant beast that was the Sith Empire took on a reality and began to coalesce. Her vision was to reforge the dying super-state into one of true greatness, not merely an autocratic empirical state based on an alliance of hatred regarding the Republic, led by families and councilors who didn't know what greatness was. Would Ava abolish such institutions as slavery? No, absolutely not.

Ava was in favor of slavery, having been a slave for a sizable part of her life. Instead, she sought to reform the institution. She would make it mandatory for slave-owners to care for, provide for, and even conditionally free their slaves. Slaves would be owned first and foremost by the Imperial state, not individual Noble families. This would be done primarily, not to care for the slaves, but to put the slave-based economic infrastructure to work for the Empire, not just giving busy projects to slave workers then working them to death, which Ava saw as a disgraceful waste of resources. The slave labor force would be governed under the authority of the Ministry of Labor and Resettlement, instead of individual Sith Spheres of Influence under the auspices of the Dark Council. Ava's military campaigns against the Sith Empire were patterned after Revan's campaigns against the Galactic Republic; she would leave infrastructure intact, while annihilating key strategic targets. Some star systems she would completely bypass, planet-hopping of sorts. Darth Malgus, a hero of Ava's whom she had wrote on back at the Academy, infamously stated "the Sith Empire is war made manifest, that is why it is perfect." With respect to Malgus, Ava disagreed and recognized she would have to change this outlook eventually. For now, it suited her purposes. War could not sustain the Sith Empire, no matter what form the Sith Empire took, Sanguine or otherwise. War is not sustainable, regardless, Ava knew. It would eat at and kill the Sith. In a note, Ava wrote "Hatred and rage were fine and good," she mused, "but passion takes on many forms. The Sith need to embrace lust far more than pain, given the choice between the two." Another sweeping change Ava would institute would be a new Representative Dark Council. The Empress would have absolute authority, but Advisors would have fail-safes and checks in place. Dark Councilors would be elected from eligible from a pool of recognized successful Sith Lords and Ladies. Ava was, in essence, using her studies to wipe the Imperial slate clean and start over, forcing a sense of egalitarianism between Dark Councilors, and Imperial Advisors. There would be no more Spheres of Influence, at all. Ava would thus redefine the Sith Empire. No longer would Sith Lords simply attain command positions in areas such as labor, medicine and health, intelligence, or military and trade for the sheer fact of them being a Lord, Lady, or Darth. Further, the Empress was the only person authorized to grant the rank of Darth. Without Her permission, the highest rank any Sith could attain was Lord or Lady depending on position and/or gender. Ava would not allow what she saw as "wanton idiocy" to usurp the proper military or civilian /municipal authorities and commanders, notably the proper Moffs, Generals, and Admirals of any given Sector. This constant interference in the old Sith Empire where Sith interference would ruin entire campaigns, and the military would, in turn, suffer for it. No more would this happen under Sanguine rule. Meritocratic hierarchy would rule the day, once more, as it was intended. No one would command anything of any sort if they did not rule from the front, or as Ava came to call it, proactively commanding. "Never order your troops to do anything for you that you would not do for them." She had intoned in a lecture to her apprentice.

Ava's new system debuted in her small fledgling military force a mere seven months into the war against the old Sith Empire. Admittedly, part of her reasoning was merely pragmatic: she could not afford to waste her loyal soldiers on high-stakes gambles and careless operations. She needed to be strategically intelligent. Each operation required careful planning. Each setback meant more lives lost that could not be easily replaced, material, ships, vehicles, starfighters, even warships that were so precious they had to be carefully allocated. The Sith Empire outweighed them in every conceivable category; numerical advantages, firepower, ruthlessness, and dominance. The Sanguine Empire had to be cunning, and carefully build forces while simultaneously stripping advantages from the Sith. Ava's meritocratic system was roughly sketched out, but already it was paying dividends, as the Sith Empire was overly fond of wasting lives and drowning the enemy in Sith blood. She refused to entertain blind loyalty, and absent-minded tactics. She took strategic risks, but only when the payout was judged to be worth it. The Sith Empire had a plethora of Sith...Ava refused to call them Lords, but rather disposable Force-sensitive infantry who thought themselves as Lords. The Sanguine Empire had Ava and a select precious few other former Jedi Knights and Sith Acolytes. Few realized how brutal the Sith Empire and the Sanguine Empire were to each other. Ava also did not embrace the expendable swarm tactics of the Imperial Navy Starfighter Corps. Instead, she invested her own financial assets in buying, and building starfighters that were sturdier, more powerful, and more punishing towards the enemy. At the finishing of Kuat, as Rex finished sweet-talking and coercing the Kuati family and board-members, Ava's entire First Fleet hyperspaced in, with the _Endurance _at the fleet's head.


	21. Chapter 21

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p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Part XXII-/span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Over eight hundred combat vessels, arrayed in an attack formation along sections 21-Aurek through 38. Yet Ava was puzzled when her Admiral, Carrie Sortek, one of the best the Echani had to offer, told her that the Kuat Drive Yards systems were down, shields were offline, gravitational defense systems were undetectable, and there was no discernable activity on either Kuat's planetary surface, or on the surface of the Yards facilities themselves in orbit. Ava ordered her fleet to back off a bit, boarded her shuttle with a small fighter escort, and flew over to the Yards command headquarters, given the communications blackout. She noted the lack of any surprise anti-air fire, yet there was clearly activity within the facilities themselves. The escort shuttle landed, its fighter accompaniment flying off into a patrol pattern. Several of the Kuati ranking members came into the hangar bay to greet the new arrival. The ramp descended from the shuttle's "mouth" and two files of white-robed guards in white and red armorplate, clad in heavy armor and armed with Echani firebrands, plus other weapons under their armorweave cloaks. They formed a silent split-phalanx on either side of the ramp, never speaking, never moving. After a pause, a dark-robed figure, clad in mask, boots, hood, and spined gauntlets., covering both her natural and

Part XXII-

Over eight hundred combat vessels, arrayed in an attack formation along sections 21-Aurek through 38. Yet Ava was puzzled when her Admiral, Carrie Sortek, one of the best the Echani had to offer, told her that the Kuat Drive Yards systems were down, shields were offline, gravitational defense systems were undetectable, and there was no discernible activity on either Kuat's planetary surface, or on the surface of the Yards facilities themselves in orbit. Ava ordered her fleet to back off a bit, boarded her shuttle with a small fighter escort, and flew over to the Yards command headquarters, given the communications blackout. She noted the lack of any surprise anti-air fire, yet there was clearly activity within the facilities themselves. The escort shuttle landed, its fighter accompaniment flying off into a patrol pattern. Several of the Kuati ranking members came into the hangar bay to greet the new arrival. The ramp descended from the shuttle's "mouth" and two files of white-robed guards in white and red armorplate, clad in heavy armor and armed with Echani firebrands, plus other weapons under their armorweave cloaks. They formed a silent split-phalanx on either side of the ramp, never speaking, never moving. After a pause, a dark-robed figure, clad in mask, boots, hood, and spined gauntlets., covering both her natural and cybernetic hand. Ava looked out over the assembled corporate body through her Death's Head Mask, the integrated target-assessor telling her none of them were armed. "Who is in charge?" She asked firmly, scanning the face of each member and mapping them into her helmet's memory codex. The eldest son and Kuati heir stood up shakily and approached Ava, falling to one knee before her. "I am, dark one...w-we were given certain assurances of protection-" Ava cut off with the Force, simply looking at him and tilting her head, causing his throat to compress. His hands went up to scratch and claw, and grasp at a noose that was not there, "You will speak when spoken to. And you will address me as Your Highness, Empress, or Your Majesty. The honorific is your choice. Am I clear?" The eldest managed to nod faintly. In response, Ava recanted her head, straightening up, and dropped the boy back to his knees, leaving him coughing and gasping at Ava's feet. "Y-yes my Empress...Mistress Rex told us to expect you." Ava growled softly, "Of course she did...no matter. I take it then, that Kuat Drive Yards is under my command?" She asked without missing a beat. "Yes Empress, our facility and workers are yours to command." Seeing the son have the proper deference pleased Ava greatly, "Excellent." she beamed. "You will begin creating a new warship for me. For the Sanguine Empire. En masse. I have the specifications drawn up. A new line of main battleship to rival the Sith Empire's _Harrower_, and matching the best of the Republic battleships. This shall be in the Sith characteristic design, but heavily modified as the design shows. You will have seven months to have the first five ships keels laid, and to the end of the year for the first three to go into service."

Color drained from the eldest son's face as he took the data-pad, "W-what you ask, is not...Not feasible." "You are among the finest shipwrights in the galaxy. You will do this. Or my fleet that I will leave here to protect you will turn their guns on you, and Kuat will not be manufacturing warships for anyone." The son nodded, in tears, "Yes Your Majesty. We...we will commence planning for construction at once. It will require retooling two of our production lines and ...thirteen of our drydocks..." Ava glared through her mask, "If you have a formal complaint, I will be sure to address it personally." Lightning crackled along her fingertips and the boy backed away. "Understood my Empress. Right away." Ava nodded and prepared to board her shuttle. "I will leave four flotillas of warships here to guard you. They will be flying your own Kuat Drive Yards colors and flag. Do not make me turn your protectors into your executioners." With that, the Dark Lord turned and left, her personal bodyguards following behind her. Rexane pulls the former patriarch with her and makes to leave the room as well, but before she did she turns to the son, "Submit your requests for personnel to me, but if you can not deliver it is on you, is that clear?" The son nodded fearfully, "Yes, Mistress Rex." Rexane lightly choked him in correction, "Lady Spectre, please." The son coughed, "I understand Lady Spectre, I will send you a list post haste." "Thank you, dear boy, follow the rules and please the Empress, and you may yet have a long life." She then walks from the room, dragging the struggling former patriarch behind until she reaches Ava. "My Empress, I bring the unwilling traitor of Kuat for your judgment. Ava turned around once the ramp had sealed behind them. "Ah." She intoned malevolently, "this is the honor-bound loyalist who threatened to, what was it? Oh yes, 'sell us out to the Republic like the dirty Kath hounds we are', isn't that right?" She mocked, teaching up to pull her mask off. "No, don't speak, you've done quite enough of that lately. In fact, let me remove the temptation for you." With a demonic visage. Ava relished the patriarch's screams as she slowly knitted the man's mouth shut with the Force. Blood trickled from his mouth and his eyes begged for his life to end, indicating he could not take the pain. Ava knelt down on one knee to be level with the man, "you crave death, I know. But you do not understand the pain I have endured waiting for you to submit. You owe me a debt. And now, thanks to Lady Spectre, i will collect. And you will learn the true meaning of Hell. And unlike Lady Spectre here, I enjoy my work. Every drop of blood I take from you, every gagged scream, is music to my ears and poetry to my senses. And really, we're on my ship. And when we dock, you will not be dying for quite some time. Oh, you'll talk? But sweetie...you have nothing I want to hear. But please, feel free to scream. If you can." Ava slipped her mask back on and skipped her claws free from her gloved hand. "Let's have some fun.' He did in fact scream. Loud.

cybernetic hand. Ava looked out over the assembled corporate body through her Death's Head Mask, the integrated target-assessor telling her none of them were armed. "Who is in charge?" She asked firmly, scanning the face of each member and mapping them into her helmet's memory codex. The eldest son and Kuati heir stood up shakily and approached Ava, falling to one knee before her. "I am, dark one...w-we were given certain assurances of protection-" Ava cut off with the Force, simply looking at him and tilting her head, causing his throat to compress. His hands went up to scratch and claw, and grasp at a noose that was not there, "You will speak when spoken to. And you will address me as Your Highness, Empress, or Your Majesty. The honorific is your choice. Am I clear?" The eldest managed to nod faintly. In response, Ava recanted her head, straightening up, and dropped the boy back to his knees, leaving him coughing and gasping at Ava's feet. "Y-yes my Empress...Mistress Rex told us to expect you." Ava growled softly, "Of course she did...no matter. I take it then, that Kuat Drive Yards is under my command?" She asked without missing a beat. "Yes Empress, our facility and workers are yours to command." Seeing the son have the proper deference pleased Ava greatly, "Excellent." she beamed. "You will begin creating a new warship for me. For the Sanguine Empire. En masse. I have the specifications drawn up. A new line of main battleship to rival the Sith Empire's /span/span/spanspan style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"emHarrower/em/span/span/spanspan style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;", and matching the best of the Republic battleships. This shall be in the Sith characteristic design, but heavily modified as the design shows. You will have seven months to have the first five ships keels laid, and to the end of the year for the first three to go into service." /span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Color drained from the eldest son's face as he took the data-pad, "W-what you ask, is not...Not feasible." "You are among the finest shipwrights in the galaxy. You will do this. Or my fleet that I will leave here to protect you will turn their guns on you, and Kuat will not be manufacturing warships for anyone." The son nodded, in tears, "Yes Your Majesty. We...we will commence planning for construction at once. It will require retooling two of our production lines and ...thirteen of our drydocks..." Ava glared through her mask, "If you have a formal complaint, I will be sure to address it personally." Lightning crackled along her fingertips and the boy backed away. "Understood my Empress. Right away." Ava nodded and prepared to board her shuttle. "I will leave four flotillas of warships here to guard you. They will be flying your own Kuat Drive Yards colors and flag. Do not make me turn your protectors into your executioners." With that, the Dark Lord turned and left, her personal bodyguards following behind her. Rexane pulls the former patriarch with her and makes to leave the room as well, but before she did she turns to the son, "Submit your requests for personnel to me, but if you can not deliver it is on you, is that clear?" The son nodded fearfully, "Yes, Mistress Rex." Rexane lightly choked him in correction, "Lady Spectre, please." The son coughed, "I understand Lady Spectre, I will send you a list post haste." "Thank you, dear boy, follow the rules and please the Empress, and you may yet have a long life." She then walks from the room, dragging the struggling former patriarch behind until she reaches Ava. "My Empress, I bring the unwilling traitor of Kuat for your judgement." Ava turned around once the ramp had sealed behind them. "Ah." She intoned malevolently, "this is the honor-bound loyalist who threatened to, what was it? Oh yes, 'sell us out to the Republic like the dirty Kath hounds we are', isn't that right?" She mocked, teaching up to pull her mask off. "No, don't speak, you've done quite enough of that lately. In fact, let me remove the temptation for you." With a demonic visage. Ava relished the patriarch's screams as she slowly knitted the man's mouth shut with the Force. Blood trickled from his mouth and his eyes begged for his life to end, indicating he could not take the pain. Ava knelt down on one knee to be level with the man, "you crave death, I know. But you do not understand the pain I have endured waiting for you to submit. You owe me a debt. And now, thanks to Lady Spectre, i will collect. And you will learn the true meaning of Hell. And unlike Lady Spectre here, I enjoy my work. Every drop of blood I take from you, every gagged scream, is music to my ears and poetry to my senses. And really, we're on my ship. And when we dock, you will not be dying for quite some time. Oh, you'll talk? But sweetie...you have nothing I want to hear. But please, feel free to scream. If you can." Ava slipped her mask back on and skipped her claws free from her gloved hand. "Let's have some fun.' He did in fact scream. Loud./span/span/span/p  
p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.03in; line-height: 100%;"span style="color: #ffffff;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"Vermilion stood at the bridge of the Harrower that she had designated as her flagship, looking on the pathetic ice ball of a planet that was known as Rhen Var. From the information gathered it reminded her a lot of Hoth, cold, barren, and in the right places, war-torn. She looked down at the ground map, noting the locations of the 811th Sith Empire forces and the 332nd Sanguine Empire forces. After much thought and almost a week of reconnaissance she knew how to remove them, a ground assault on their headquarters from the rear with one legion while simultaneously leading the other two legions on an attack from the rear of the 811th driving them into the 332nd. The 811th would kill the 332nd as they tried to flee and both would be massacred by her troops as clean up. She also decided that she would dedicate ship to ground fire to begin while she was landing her troops as a distraction, the thought of the deaths made her lick her lips in anticipation. This was her choice to kill in joy, not of friends like before, but those who deserved to be removed. Her yellow eyes looked at the view port, remembering how she had been forsaken by all her former masters, from the Jedi on Tython, to that pathetic excuse for a man who attempted to train her in a former house, forsaken by even those she thought loved and cared for her, even her own family. Now it was the chance to show them all what someone who actually saw potential in her and had trained her made her capable of. She made her way to the hanger to brief the troops. When she arrived they were just finishing up final preparations, she walked to the gangway overlooking the hangar bay, drew her saber and ignited it. The red black saber echoed across the bay with the iconic snap hiss and every head turned her way then all the troops came to attention as one./span/span/span/p


	22. Chapter 22

Vermilion stood at the bridge of the Harrower that she had designated as her flagship, looking on the pathetic ice ball of a planet that was known as Rhen Var. From the information gathered it reminded her a lot of Hoth, cold, barren, and in the right places, war-torn. She looked down at the ground map, noting the locations of the 811th Sith Empire forces and the 332nd Sanguine Empire forces. After much thought and almost a week of reconnaissance she knew how to remove them, a ground assault on their headquarters from the rear with one legion while simultaneously leading the other two legions on an attack from the rear of the 811th driving them into the 332nd. The 811th would kill the 332nd as they tried to flee and both would be massacred by her troops as clean up. She also decided that she would dedicate ship to ground fire to begin while she was landing her troops as a distraction, the thought of the deaths made her lick her lips in anticipation. This was her choice to kill in joy, not of friends like before, but those who deserved to be removed. Her yellow eyes looked at the view port, remembering how she had been forsaken by all her former masters, from the Jedi on Tython, to that pathetic excuse for a man who attempted to train her in a former house, forsaken by even those she thought loved and cared for her, even her own family. Now it was the chance to show them all what someone who actually saw potential in her and had trained her made her capable of. She made her way to the hanger to brief the troops. When she arrived they were just finishing up final preparations, she walked to the gangway overlooking the hangar bay, drew her saber and ignited it. The red black saber echoed across the bay with the iconic snap hiss and every head turned her way then all the troops came to attention as one.

Part XXIII-

"All of you here have come here because you are loyal soldiers of the Sanguine Empire!" The troops cheered as one with enthusiasm. "We have come to this planet, by the name of Rhen Var, to take what some of your fellow troops could not. The Three Hundred and Thirty-second Strykers have stained the snow with its blood in their attempts to take this location, overwhelmed by the Eight Hundred and Eleventh Sith Empire Legions. They fought to the last man, but were massacred." She could hear the sharp intake of breath from some and feel their fear, she knew it was time to fully motivate them. "But fear not, for we are stronger, we shall take them on the rear flank as we also take their base surrounding the manufacturing area. Trust in your Commanders and trust in me, we shall succeed together! But take heed, DO NOT attempt to fight or engage the Darth on the field, you WILL perish, leave her to me. Now, to battle, for the glory of the Sanguine Empire!" The troops answered in a resounding roar.

Vermilion made her way to the command drop ship, leading from the front, the ship took off and began its descent towards the planet, "Gunners," she said over her task force comms, "Blow any ship that is not ours out of the sky, no hesitation." She received acknowledgments across all channels, the ship shook a bit as it made entry into the atmosphere and then began to descend even faster for the rear of the 811ths lines. As it landed everyone disembarked…and then the slaughter began, the Sanguine Empire's troops and Vermilion began to tear through the communications area like a scythe through wheat. Vermilion was using her saber to eviscerate the troops, not even noticing their screams, she had a singular goal in mind, kill Darth Bactris. She felt something noticeable in Darth Bactris's style, it reminded her of two men she hated, ones who had trained or attempted to train her, Darth Niryks and Darth Jathonis, followers of the old ways. The hate focused her and she gave in to being an instrument of destruction in the dark side of the force as she cut a bloody swath through them, moving like red lightning, a smile under her mask.

After the destruction of the communications base she commed the other two legions under her direction and gave orders to their commanders, "Annihilate them," she stated and then cut the connection. She began walking towards the base that Darth Bactris called sanctuary and drew her blade with her left, the Krath steel singing as the wind whipped around the razor sharp edge. The cold wind blew across the ice covered plain as the Twi'lek Darth came out to face her in one on one combat. Darth Bactris had not drawn her weapon yet but instead clapped her hands mockingly to try and get a reaction from Vermilion. "So, Ava'kra does not have the spine to face me, she sends her little mewling pet instead?" she says with arrogant distaste, "Is she trying to give me a new apprentice? Well, let us see how long you survive and I might consider it, if you are still worth my time." Vermilion continued to wait as Bactris drew her saber and ignited it, she then sheathed her sword on her back, moving into a very mobile stance, her yellow eyes watching Bactris like a nexu eyeing its next meal. She waited for Bactris to make the first move, their sabers crossing and sparking when they connected with the first strike. She then moved back, reading Bactris's moves with a practiced eye, even for her young age. Bactris then brought her saber in a low slash which Vermilion leapt over, bringing her saber in for a quick strike on Bactris's left lekku, caressing it with the heat of the blade, causing Bactris to scream in pain. The Twi'lek then swung wildly at the human which was blocked with a palm and a grin, causing Bactris' eyes to widen with just a hint of fear. Bactris slowed just a little allowing for Vermilion to roundhouse kick the Twi'lek right across the neck with a thud as the armored boot met the neck plating of Bactris's helmet.

Bactris stumbled back as Vermilion removed her mask with her left hand, a triumphant sneer of contempt crossing her face as an icy wind gust blew her hood back off, exposing her red hair. She moved into a waiting stance, and beckoned with her left hand, tauntingly urging Bactris to attack her. Bactris roared at her in rage and begin attacking blindly with fervor, overwhelming Vermilion for a few moments, the saber slicing off part of her ponytail, filling the icy cold air with the smell of burned and singed locks. Vermilion acrobatically moved to about 2 meters away from Bactris and growled, partially at her opponent but mostly at her own arrogance and hubris for allowing the blade to get through her guard, her Mistress would not be pleased. She then deactivated her saber, Bactris triumphantly crowed at her as she did, "Giving up and joining me against the traitor, are you? Admitting who you are loyal to?!" Vermilion said nothing as she clipped her saber to her belt, then reached into the scabbard on her back and drew out the Krath steel sword once more. Vermilion then dashed forward, augmented by the Force and with one lightning fast strike severed Darth Bactris's left lekku. An almost animalistic scream ripped across the ice fields and tundra as blood began to stain the white ground, Vermilion then swung the bloodied blade again, removing the other lekku with no remorse. She then brought the blade back up into a guard as she threw a holocomm onto the ground that called Ava as soon as it made contact. After a moment, Ava's holo stood there as if normal sized, gazing down at what was once a rival, now nothing more than a broken woman. There was some conversation between the women, it was not for Vermilion to care about, so she only registered the parts that mattered, "Apprentice, kill her and bring me the head and lekku as trophies.""Yes, my Empress and Mistress," she answered, before swinging the sword in an execution chop that severed the neck of Darth Bactris between the vertebrae. She then took the head and the lekku, bagging them in the woman's own cape before turning to her soldiers, "See to the body, kill all the troops that are not ours and report to me when it is done." "Yes, my lord!" The field commander answered, and without another word Vermilion boarded the ship, heading back for her flagship to directly speak to her Empress in private for her Mistress's critique of her actions and battle tactics.


End file.
